Forks Over Knives Fall 2021

Making the vast majority of your meals at home is a great way to stay on a healthy eating path. But making every single thing from scratch isn’t always practical, and the cook’s job can often be simplified with the help of a few MVP ingredients. For this issue, FOK Chef Darshana Thacker asked plant-based weight-loss expert Chef AJ to share some of her favorite online sources of WFPB specialty products and ingredients. Then Darshana took a bunch of those products into her own kitchen and developed tasty recipes featuring the best of the best. In “WFPB, Delivered” on page 28, you can see the tasty ways she used plant-based burger patties, sauces, spice blends, and more from select specialty brands. These items can lighten your workload while offering the flavor…

WHAT TO EAT ON A WFPB DIET LOAD UP ON THESE Fruits (bananas, blueberries, oranges, strawberries) Vegetables (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kale, lettuce) Tubers and starchy vegetables (corn, green peas, potatoes, winter squash) Whole grains (barley, brown rice, millet, oats, quinoa, wheat berries) Legumes (black beans, chickpeas, lentils, pinto beans) ENJOY IN MODERATION Plant-based milks (almond, cashew, hemp, oat, rice, soy) Tofu and tempeh Whole grain flours and breads Whole nuts and seeds, nut/seed butters (almond butter, pumpkin seeds, tahini, walnuts) AVOID OR MINIMIZE Bleached flours, white bread, and white pasta Dairy products Eggs Meat, poultry, and seafood Oils Refined sweeteners White rice For a more detailed primer on the FOK diet, visit forksoverknives.com/what-to-eat…

1 PUT STARCHES AND FRUITS AT THE CENTER OF YOUR PLATE. Enjoy nonstarchy and leafy veggies in generous amounts, but look to carbohydrate-rich whole grains, beans, fruits, and starchy vegetables to provide enough calories to power you through your day. 2 YOU’LL LIKELY EAT MORE FOOD, NOT LESS. Whole or minimally processed plant foods are dense in nutrients, not calories. As you adjust to this way of eating, you may find you feel a little hungry shortly after a meal, but over time you’ll get a sense of how much to eat to stay satiated. 3 FOCUS ON PLEASURE. The best whole plant foods are the ones you enjoy enough to stay on a healthy path. So have veggie chili, whole grain pasta, tacos, mashed potatoes, or whatever else hits the spot. 4…

DARSHANA THACKER Thacker is chef and culinary projects manager for Forks Over Knives. A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, she is the author of the Forks Over Knives: Flavor! cookbook, recipe author for the book Forks Over Knives Family, and recipe contributor to The New York Times best-selling book The Forks Over Knives Plan. MICHAEL GREGER, MD, FACLM Greger is a physician and author of The New York Times best-selling books How Not to Die and The How Not to Diet Cookbook. His videos on 2,000-plus health topics can be viewed at nutritionfacts.org. CYRUS KHAMBATTA, PHD Khambatta is a co-founder of Mastering Diabetes, a coaching program that reverses insulin resistance via low-fat, whole-food, plant-based nutrition, and co-author of the best-selling Mastering Diabetes: The Revolutionary Method to Reverse Insulin Resistance Permanently in Type 1, Type…

RISE AND SHINE Boosting your mood may be as simple as going to sleep (and waking up) one hour earlier, new research finds. A large-scale study published in May in JAMA Psychiatry looked at data from more than 840,000 people to better understand how chronotype—i.e., preference for going to bed and waking at a certain time—influences depression risk. They found that people genetically predisposed to wake up early were significantly less likely to experience depression than their later-sleeping counterparts. Not only that, but going to bed and waking just one hour earlier could cut depression risk by 23 percent, and doing so two hours earlier could slash that risk by 40 percent. A number of previous studies have demonstrated that night owls are more likely to be depressed—but because mood disorders themselves can…

LITTLE TOMATOES? Think of tomatillos as small, distant tomato cousins with an uncanny family resemblance. Like tomatoes, the walnut-size fruits with papery husks are members of the nightshade family. Their flavor is reminiscent of green tomatoes, with distinctive tart, citrusy notes. SHOP SMART Choose tomatillos with greenish-tan husks that are beginning to split. Tightly closed husks mean the tomatillos were picked when underripe and could taste bitter. Take a peek between husk leaves to check for firm, blemish-free skin. Remove the husks just before using, and rinse each tomatillo in water to remove any sticky coating on the skin. EARLY FALL BOUNTY Tomatillo vines thrive in warm, sunny climates and are especially prolific in late summer and early fall. There’s every reason to stock up on local tomatillos when you find them.…